Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.[Algernon.] [Jack puts out his hand to take a sandwich. Algernon at once interferes.] Please don’t touch the cucumber sandwiches. They are ordered specially for Aunt Augusta. [Takes one and eats it.]Jack. Well, you have been eating them all the time.Algernon. That is quite a different matter. She is my aunt. [Takes plate from below.] Have some bread and butter. The bread and butter is for Gwendolen. Gwendolen is devoted to bread and butter.
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.[Lady Bracknell.] I have always been of opinion that a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing. Which do you know?Jack. [After some hesitation.] I know nothing, Lady Bracknell.Lady Bracknell. I am pleased to hear it. I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Lady Bracknell. Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd. . . . I should be much obliged if you would ask Mr. Bunbury, from me, to be kind enough not to have a relapse on Saturday, for I rely on you to arrange my music for me. It is my last reception, and one wants something that will encourage conversation, particularly at the end of the season when every one has practically said whatever they had to say, which, in most cases, was probably not much.
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Jack. [Irritably.] Oh! It always is nearly seven.Algernon. Well, I’m hungry.Jack. I never knew you when you weren’t . . .Algernon. What shall we do after dinner? Go to a theatre?Jack. Oh, no! I loathe listening.Algernon. Well, let us go to the Club?Jack. Oh, no! I hate talking.Algernon. Well, we might trot round to the Empire at ten?Jack. Oh, no! I can’t bear looking at things. It is so silly.Algernon. Well, what shall we do?Jack. Nothing!Algernon. It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I don’t mind hard work where there is no definite object of any kind.
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Algernon. [Languidly.] I don’t know that I am much interested in your family life, Lane.Lane. No, sir; it is not a very interesting subject. I never think of it myself.Algernon. Very natural, I am sure. That will do, Lane, thank you.Lane. Thank you, sir. [Lane goes out.]Algernon. Lane’s views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.
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